Wednesday, June 18, 2014

this guy has worked in the bicycle industry for a good number of years-long enough to know pretty much my beginnings as a builder here in Santa Cruz. He chose a paint scheme to echo the one on his Eddy Merckx frame that he has been riding or a long time. I wonder what he will think of the 7005 frame material.

The logos on the frame are painted on and are not decals. This four-color paint was done by local painter Allan Neymark. Allan has been painting bicycle frames since around 1979 so he is also one of the old guard.

Here you can see how Allan lined up the stripes on the fork with the ones on the frame. he was justifiably proud of that aspect of the finished product.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Yes, it can be done and here's a finished example. A way to get standover for a rider this size is a reverse-curve top tube.I know that some builders won't go to these extremes but this little shredder is what custom bikes are all about-finding solutions for folks that don't fit on store-bought production bikes.

The disc brakes really simplify the cable routing issues that usually plague bikes this size. The build includes some nice stuff like Brooks saddle and handlebar tape, King headset and White Industry hubs.

I was told by numerous people that this paint job is taken from Indy car racing-the Gulf team in particular. This masterful masking was dome by Spectrum powderworks in Colorado.

If you look carefully you'll see through-axles front and rear and disc brakes. This 6'9" rider was wanting a really durable stout chassis. I think that this frame should fill the bill-I can't build a more robust road frame than this.

The fork also has a tapered steerer-another feature to create rigidity . It will be interesting to get a ride report when it is all up and rolling.